How does training Hollywood actors compare with working with Hong Kong actors?
American actors aren’t brought up in the Hong Kong tradition: Jackie Chan or Jet Li will already know how to fight, whereas those in Hollywood have to be trained. For instance, it took four months to teach Keanu Reeves the techniques. Kung fu has gone mainstream in Hollywood with movies such as Charlie’s Angels. How do you account for its popularity? I don’t really understand why this has happened. I think it must be that audiences in the US don’t see too many Hong Kong movies, and they’re not familiar with this kind of movement. And when they do see it, they love it, and they want more of it. Purists argue that the art of kung fu is being devalued because the likes of Keanu and Drew Barrymore claim they ‘know kung fu’ after a few months of training. Do you think this is the case? I didn’t work on Charlie’s Angels, but I know that Drew trained for five months. But I wouldn’t call it devaluation; it’s just a different way of working. You tailor-make the movement to the physicality and f
